In my
feverish attempt to lay hands on every comics-related publication in the known
universe, I often mistakenly acquire more than one copy of a single title. That
is usually the case with the books I list here at Rancid Raves from
time-to-time. I’m not really in the bookstore business. But when I’ve acquired
duplicate copies, I offer them for sale to the first-taker at ridiculously low
prices. When not duplicate copies from my collection, the books tend to be
review copies or contributors' copies (sent to me in multiples, but I need only
one for my archives). Most of these, in other words, are new books, often not
even read—unless otherwise noted. The Rare books, on the other hand, tend to be
second owner tomes. Generally speaking, the prices are about half the original
price for the "recent" publications; the Old and Rare, however, are
priced accordingly.

Shipping. For one book, the
Media Mail p&h is $3; add $1 for each additional book. (Overseas, it’s $20
for the first book, plus $3 for each additional book.) Magazine shipping costs
are different; see that section. If you’re interested in making a purchase,
drop down below (to the very end) where you’ll find my e-mail (or go to the
website’s front page), jot me a note, and I’ll give you ordering instructions
and hold the book(s) for you for two weeks, pending receipt of your check.

All are paperback
publications unless otherwise noted.

SECTIONS
OF THE LIST

There are
three sections of this list, each corresponding to the time the books therein
were offered for sale:

SECTION 1

Books Added
Since September 2010 (i.e, THE MOST RECENT BOOKS)

SECTION 2

Books Added
in September 2010, Since the Last Sale in November 2009

SECTION 3

The November
2009 List (what’s left of it)

**************************************

SECTION
1: THE MOST RECENT BOOKS

I have only a
handful of additions, so I’m not categorizing them; just a simple list.

Chic
Young’s Blondie: The Complete Daily Comic Strips from 1930-33, 275-plus 8x11-inch landscape pages,
b/w (a little color in the introductory pages); takes the saga through the
troubled courtship (Dagwood’s rich parents don’t want him to marry a goldigger,
which is how they see the seemingly dingy Blondie) and Dagwood’s celebrated
hunger strike to win their acquiescence and then their marriage; see how
Dagwood’s hair developed, where that button in the middle of his shirt came
from, how did his eyes get so big, and other mysteries solved; IDW’s typically
ritzy production, hardcover, $25 (half price).

The Best
of Simon and Kirby, 240 9x12-inch pages in action-packed color, showcasing representative works by
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, starting in the 1940s—superheroes: Sandman,
Captain America, Stuntman, Fighting American; sf: Solar Patrol, Blue
Bolt; war: Boy Commandos; birth of romance: from Western Love No.
1 and Young Romance No. 22; crime: from Headline Comics and Justice Traps the Guilty;western: from Boys’ Ranch and Bullseye;horror: from Black Magic; and sick humor: from Sick and From Here to Insanity. Nothing more recent than
1966; Titan Books, hardcover, $20 (half price).

RARE: Out of the Red, essays about sports by the legendary
Red Smith; 1950, 306 6x9-inch pages, mostly text, but the reason for owning
this is that it includes numerous illustrations by the great sports cartoonist, Willard Mullin, whose work has never been systematically collected;
hardback, $5 for Mullin.

Not Comics
but Delicious:Nature’s
Temple: Meditations of John Muir; a paperback, $2

Betsy and
Me by Jack Cole; 120
5x8-inch landscape pages; b/w, paperback with introduction by RCHarvey; the
only complete reprinting of the comic strip Cole so longed to produce and
which, having sold it into syndication, he committed suicide; $6

Miscellaneous

Rumpelstiltskin with illustrations by the
incomparable Edward Gorey; a tiny but exquisite paperback in two colors; $3

*****************************

SECTION
3

Books First
Offered in November 2009

Newspaper
Comic Strip Reprints

Catch of
the Day (128 8x9-inch
pages, b/w; 2004 paperback) by Jim Toomey; the 8th collection of
Sherman’s Lagoon strips about a shark and his deep sea denizens that appear in
about 200 newspapers; $5

Lio:
Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod (128 8x9-inch pages, b/w and Sunday strips in color; paperback) by Mark
Tatulli, perhaps the first Andrews McMeel compilation of this strip that
chronicles the misguided nefarious and usually macabre doings of a small boy
with a strange imagination; $5

The Best
Political Cartoons of the Year: 2007 Edition (288 8x10-inch pages, b/w; paperback) edited by Daryl
Cagle (liberal) and Brian Fairrington (conservative); the best cartoons from
November 2005 through October 2006, including cartoons about the infamous Danish
Cartoon Controversy; this is the best of the two annual collections of editoons
and includes hundreds of cartoons; $8

The Best
Political Cartoons of the Year: 2008 Edition (288 8x10-inch pages, b/w, paperback) edited by Daryl
Cagle (liberal) and Brian Fairrington (conservative); the best cartoons from
November 2006 through October 2007. More of the above; $8.

Herblock:
A Cartoonist’s Life (416 7x10-inch pages, b/w; paperback), the autobiography of Herbert Block, one
of America’s most celebrated political cartoonists, with 250 cartoons; $7.

Gag
Cartoon Reprint

Graphic
Novels

Kings in
Disguise (192
8x10-inch pages, b/w; paperback) by James Vance and Dan Burr, the classic tale
of a cross-country quest among hoboes in the Depression 1930s; $6.

Mona
Street, 3 64
9x12-page paperbacks, “The Secret Books of Glamour, Glamour International
Production”; all erotic comics by Frollo, all in Italian; the attraction is the
artwork, exquisite drawings, many reproducing pencil sketches; each volume,
priced individually at $5 each, is different, and the listing here
distinguishes one from the other by citing the title of the first story in
each:

Russ
Meyer: The Life and Films (136 pages, b/w photos but mostly text; paperback, McFarland Classics, 1990) by
David K. Frasier, short biography and long filmography; $4

Rare
and Therefore Wonderful

Verdun
Belle and Some Others (122 6x9-inch pages, b/w; hardcover, Grosset & Dunlap), dog stories by
Alexander Woollcott illustrated by Edwina; 1928, some pages showing tan
at the edges, which makes it all the more rare (originally published, same
year, by Coward-McCann under the title Two Gentlemen and a Lady); $15

The
Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins (112 0x12-inch pages, b/w; Glide Publications, 1973) by Dan O’Neill, an
early manifestation of the underground genius in this collection of his famed
newspaper strip; $6.

Lady
Loverly's Chatter by
Mart Reb, a tiny (4x5") jewel of a mildly amusing, mildly risque novel,
but its chief attraction, and the thing that inspires the price, are Fritz
Willis' delicate pen-and-ink drawings of nekid ladies that illustrate the
tale; pages turning brown but not yet brittle; with dust jacket nearly entact;
hardcover, $30

Research
and Miscellaneous

All-Star
Companion (208
8.5x11-inch pages, b/w; paperback) edited by Roy Thomas, the world’s champion
All-Star fan, who has collected here a vast history of the series, plus some
rare and seldom-if-ever seen artwork; from TwoMorrows, $10.

Erotic
Comics: A Graphic History from Tijuana Bibles to Underground Comix (196 10x10-inch pages, color;
hardback, Harry N. Abrams) by Tim Pilcher with Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and a
Foreword by Aline Komisky Crumb; the subtitle says it all, perhaps, although I
could add that the early chapters, after beginning with “prehistory” of erotic
art and the Romans and Japanese, go on through Aubrey Beardsley, the birth of
pin-ups and WWII comics, then on to Playboy and its imitators, “Bondage Babes,”
under-the-counter stuff and undergrounds, ending with overseas comics; chapters
are often divided by cartoonist (4 pages by Dan DeCarlo followed by 4
pages of Bill Wenzel, 4 pages of Jack Cole followed by 4 of Bill
Ward, f’instance); a $30 book originally, but here you can get it for $14

The Image
of America in Caricature and Cartoon (236 8.5x9.5-inch pages, b/w some color; paperback), an extensively annotated
catalog of an exhibition that started at the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art
in Fort Worth and traveled around the country in the mid-1970s; text by Ron
Tyler, who is otherwise unidentified but the history and notations seem
authoritative and informed; $9

History

The World
Through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury by Mary F. Corey is an examination of
the magazine and its influence in the years immediately after WWII and before
its founding editor, Harold Ross, died; hardcover, $5

*****************

RC_Harvey@Q.com

Drop me a
note, telling me which books you are interested in, and I’ll tell you whether
they're still available and give you ordering instructions and hold the book(s)
for you for two weeks, pending receipt of your check.